For Kenji, a simple convenience store manager who once dreamed of becoming a rock 'n' roll musician, a host of memories from his past come rushing back when one of his childhood friends mysteriously commits suicide. Could this new death be related to the rise of a bizarre new cult that's been implicated in several other murders and disappearances? Determined to dig deeper, Kenji reunites with some of his old buddies in the hope of learning the truth behind it all.
The war is over. The Friend is dead. Finally free from the threat of extinction, peace has come to the people of Tokyo once again. But the mystery surrounding the Friend still remains. Nobody knows who the Friend was or where he came from, and the only clue is hidden deep in the Kenji’s memories. The time has come to open Pandora’s box and see what was left behind.
With killer bacteria attacks on San Francisco and London underway, the plot to destroy the world that Kenji imagined as a boy is playing out in real life through the actions of the Friend. What will happen next? Only one person knows. Only one person can save the world, and that person is Kenji. Firing up his guitar and making up his mind to stand up, Kenji heads to the concert hall where the Friend awaits…
The Friend, an enigmatic cult leader who plans to destroy the world, declares, "The cosmos has begun choosing those who are true friends." Meanwhile, horrifying incidents are taking place: the emergence of a mysterious virus, the revelations of a man on the run... Kenji tries to find out who this Friend is, but the answer is still far ahead. The footsteps of doom slowly creep closer and a shadow falls over the city...Yukiji remembers who came up with their group's enigmatic symbol: Otcho. She also discovers that, nine years earlier, Otcho had been working in Thailand but mysteriously vanished. Could Otcho be the mysterious Friend? Also, a legendary detective is hot on the trail of the Shikishima kidnappers, but the clues he uncovers lead him dangerously close to the Friends cult. Is his life now in danger as well?
It turns out that the Friend's plan to destroy the world was dreamed up long ago by a group of boys playing "good guys against bad guys"...And now, the only one who can stop this diabolical plot from succeeding is the one who came up with it--Kenji!Kenji races home and picks up the newspaper: sure enough, the mystery microbe has hit London. He thinks back over everything that has happened and what he and his childhood friends dug up, and is forced to face the unbelievable truth--someone really is putting into motion the story Kenji made up as a child, and people are dying because of it!
The giant robot has been built, awaiting its great awakening, but the Friend’s identity has yet to be revealed. Time passes day by day, counting down to December 31, 2000…the day that Earth is destined to see its end. The only ones who can save the world are the nine friends who wrote The Book of Prophecy in their childhood days. Will humanity enter the new world—the new century—safe and sound?
Kenji wrote "The Book of Prophecy" in his boyhood. Now this childish fantasy has become the scenario for the Friend's fiendish plot to destroy mankind. Kenji goes underground and waits for a chance to fight back.Meanwhile, the evil organization is closing in on a man called Shogun in the ganglands of Bangkok. The mystery grows deeper, the fear more intense, as we near the final battle at the turn of the century... Is there really any way to save the world from annihilation?
In the middle of the Tokyo Bay, a man known as Shogun has escaped from Umihotaru Prison, a place feared by criminals and convicts as an inescapable iron fort, in order to save the world. He heads off to Tokyo, the city where the girl known as “the Last Hope” lives. But the streets of Tokyo are in turmoil after a murder in Chinatown triggers a chain reaction of terror. The time has come for the false peace created by the Friend to be exposed. What is the truth behind the historic disaster on the last day of 20th century?
The giant robot has already been built and now awaits the Great Awakening... With the Friend's identity still a mystery, the countdown to the apocalypse continues, day by day, minute by minute--for on December 31, 2000, humanity will meet its final hour.Hoping to get as many people who knew about their group's emblem involved in their clandestine efforts, Kenji's crew reaches out to their childhood antagonists: the twins Yanbo and Mabo. Back when they were kids, Yanbo and Mabo terrorized Kenji and company to no end. As adults, and with a crisis looming, will the evilest brothers in history now fight on the side of good?
In 2014, Tokyo is under the complete control of the mysterious ruler known as the Friend. Kanna has chosen to step forward and confront the Friend in order to carry out the last wishes of her uncle Kenji, who has been missing since Bloody New Year’s Eve. As Kanna gathers a group of outcasts and misfits to face the Friend, her high school classmate Koizumi faces true horror in the brainwashing camp known as Friend Land. It is there that she sees something that no one was ever meant to see: the true identity of the Friend. Who will survive in this world where it is nearly impossible to distinguish friend from foe?
“My father is the Friend?” Kanna asks as she confronts the grim truth. With a heart full of despair, it will take everything for Kanna to continue the fight against the Friends. Meanwhile, Koizumi and Sadakiyo manage to escape the pursuit of the Dream Navigators, but not for long. Can Kanna, caught in an emotional struggle between her fate and the future of the Earth, step forward and head to the rescue of Koizumi? As our heroes continue their fight against the Friends, longtime secrets are revealed and more of Kenji’s friends reunite. The war against the Friends has reached yet another crescendo…
Fourteen years after Bloody New Year's Eve brought the world to the brink of extinction, Neo Tokyo in the year 2014 has fully recovered and become a thriving, multiethnic metropolis. Kanna has survived the chaos and is now 17 years old--and has just stumbled upon a terrible truth that may change her destiny.Meanwhile, at a maximum security prison ten kilometers out in the middle of Tokyo Bay, a young manga artist learns firsthand the chilling downsides of the world he now inhabits. Things go from bad to almost unbearable when he's thrown into solitary confinement right near one of the prison's most notorious inmates. Has all hope been lost, or will this mysterious prisoner offer the frightened artist his only true shot at escape?
Out in the middle of Tokyo Bay, a man called Shogun is trying to break out of Umihotaru Prison, a maximum-security island fortress, so he can save the world. Accompanied by a frightened young manga artist, these two men are prepared to risk everything as their daring escape plan grows deadlier by the minute. However, the prison authorities will do whatever it takes to return Shogun and his reluctant companion to custody.Shogun's ultimate goal: Tokyo, where a girl he calls the "final hope" lives, but a murder in Kabuki-cho has triggered a chain reaction of terror. Can Shogun reveal the truth about the false peace created by the Friends? And what are the facts behind the disaster that took place in the final moments of the 20th century?!
Kanna, burdened by the fact that her mother Kiriko developed the bacteriological weapons used by the Friends on Bloody New Year’s Eve, ruminates over the ominous messages she left behind. When the weapons come back to haunt humanity, Kanna isn’t the only one searching for traces of Kiriko. Otcho gets closer to finding out the missing doctor's current whereabouts after a search leads him to her former colleague, Dr. Yamane.
Evil has come. Justice has yet to arrive…While an unknown virus spreads and cripples the world with fear, the 2015 World Expo prepares to start, serving as a beacon of hope in a dark world. But how can our heroes remain hopeful as strange rumors start to spread? Between sightings of the recently deceased Friend walking the streets of Japan and rumors of an assassination attempt on the pope, all signs point towards an eventful opening ceremony for the 2015 World Expo.
What really happened on Bloody New Year's Eve? Kenji, Otcho and Maruo have just driven their dynamite-loaded truck under the robot…where they see what a poor relation to the giant robot they dreamed up in their childhoods it actually is: just two legs with caterpillar treads, held together by an enormous hot air balloon, with cloth hanging down to disguise the underside!Meanwhile, at the meeting of the government's crisis control committee, Manjome Inshu unveils the Friend's benevolent plan to distribute worldwide a vaccine against the virus being spread by the robot. At the same time, the Friends will contribute a monument they were building for their headquarters to serve as a blockade against the robot. The Friends are saving the day! Or are they?
Darkness covers the world as the forces of evil take control. The Friend has become the President of the World and rules with absolute power from behind the giant wall of the city of Tokyo. Most of the world believes that the Friend is their savior, but below the surface, a resistance group led by "The Ice Queen" begins to make its move. The only one capable of ending this nightmare, she plans an armed revolt—but then a ray of hope shines from an unexpected corner...
The year is 2014, and Neo Tokyo is completely under the control of the Friend. Kanna has decided to stand up and avenge Kenji--will she be able to muster up enough support for her cause? Kanna makes her way to a mafia-operated casino and quickly finds herself at a high stakes table. Is she lucky (and smart) enough to turn the odds in her favor at the bizarre and fast-paced game of Rabbit Nabokov?While Kanna marshals her forces, Koizumi Kyoko experiences true horror at the reeducation camp known as Friend Land. Going back in time in their "Virtual World," she meets Kenji and his pals as boys in 1971 and sees something that is strictly taboo: the Friend's childhood face! Will she live to report back on the Friend's identity?
It appears that Kanna's ambitious gamble has paid off as the leaders of the local Thai and Chinese mafias agree to both call a truce and offer to back her up. This doesn't sit too well with Yukiji, though, who is furious that Kanna would risk her life in such a brazen way. But one thing seems certain: when it comes to fighting the Friends, there's no limit to how far Kanna will go.Meanwhile, Koizumi Kyoko begins following Kanna in an attempt to tell her about everything she learned while at Friend Land. Her behavior, however, does not go unnoticed by the Friends, and a menacing dream navigator suddenly appears to inform Kyoko that she will need to go to Friend World for further reeducation. Luckily for Kyoko, there are no immediate spaces available, but will she have enough time to get help from Kanna and Yoshitsune before her number is called?
A man with a guitar arrives at a barrier town outside of Tokyo. Anyone who attempts to travel through the town without a pass is arrested and murdered. As the days go by, the body count grows and grows... Who can change this horrible situation and break through the barrier town? And who awaits at their final destination?
There once was a kid who imagined the end of the world. It was all a child’s game—until it became terribly real! The Friend is carrying out his plan to exterminate humanity—just as predicted. And the man who survived Bloody New Year’s Eve is on his way back to Tokyo. The boys are coming back together one by one as they race toward the final battle.
Is the Friend really Kanna's father?! Will she still be able to stand up and fight, despite this anguishing news? Meanwhile, Koizumi Kyoko and Sadakiyo have gotten away from the Dream Navigators by the skin of their teeth, but as Yoshitsune once warned, these people will chase you to the ends of the earth… With Kanna in shock over the truth of her paternity, will she have the strength to go and rescue Koizumi?Also, back in the summer of 2002, Mon-chan succeeded in tracking down Sadakiyo and got him to commit to paper the truth about the Friend's identity and his actions. But to prove his loyalty to his trusted Friend, Sadakiyo took measures to ensure that the "Mon-chan Memo" stayed hidden. What exactly was "the Lie of 1970" and how far will the Dream Navigators go to prevent it from being revealed?
Will 2015 bring an end to human history?! An urgent but mysterious messsage left by her mother Kiriko in 2002 finally reaches Kanna. But where is Kiriko, who developed the germ warfare weapons used on Bloody New Year's Eve, and what is she doing now? Memories of New Years past flood the minds of Kenji's friends and family. Will Yoshitsune's clandestine actions eventually prove fruitful, or are they doomed to repeat the tragedies of the year 2000?Meanwhile, Otcho and Kakuta are busily trying to track down Kiriko's former colleague, Dr. Yamane. Unexpectedly, their search leads them to the very neighborhood that Otcho, Kenji, Maruo and the rest of their childhood pals grew up in. Can a visit to their old school shed new light on a bizarre incident that happened when they were all in the sixth grade?
The Friend is dead. As the news spreads around the world, the members of the Friends' executive committee are faced with a dilemma: Is it all over, or will the events predicted in the New Book of Prophecy still be carried out? Otcho insists that things are not over at all, and that is exactly what his old nemesis—Number 13—tells the fractious Friends' committee, where quite a few members are prepared to call it quits. Soon thereafter, certain members begin disappearing, one after another.Also, Otcho relays to Kanna what he learned about her mother, Kiriko. In 2003, Kiriko appeared at Dr. Yamane's laboratory just as he was developing his deadliest virus yet. The two lab partners would work in tandem, with Yamane developing a new virus and Kiriko contributing a vaccine. But was Dr. Yamane simply being naïve, or did he realize that he was helping to create the means for the Friends to annihilate 99 percent of the world's population in the year 2015?!
As the entire planet grieves over the death of their beloved Friend, the remaining members of his inner circle continue to silence any and all dissenters. Dream Navigator Takasu believes that once they locate Kiriko—Kanna's mother and Kenji's older sister—Manjome Inshu will finally be in a position to control the entire world. However, Manjome hasn't been the same since their Friend's passing. Will he be able to set his doubts aside and continue with the Friend's grand scheme?Meanwhile, Kanna and company take advantage of the lax security following the Friend's passing and break into Friend Land. Their objective: to reenter the Virtual World. Feeling that Kanna's too emotionally involved, though, Yoshitsune decides to enter the game with Koizume Kyoko instead—a decision that doesn't sit too well with Koizumi. With Kanna prepared to terminate the game should things go bad, Yoshitsune and Koizumi journey back to the summer of 1971, but is it the real 1971 or just another one of the Friend's fabrications?